Tree Wrapping - Bad Habit

A BAD HABIT - TREE WRAPPING

According to a well-known psychologist, tradition is the living faith of the dead and traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.

A modern arborist takes issue with dead faith of those who continue a practice rooted in traditionalism, trunk wrapping. The only reason they do it is because grandfather did it. In reality, though, it causes damage because the trunk wrap prevents the energy of the sun from being trapped where it should be, the green tissue of the cortex below the periderm of the tree trunk. The parenchyma of the cortex is made up of chlorophyll containing cells and in the process called photosynthesis food is produced for the tree as well as for many microorganisms in the soil.

So, by wrapping we deprive the tree of its natural source of food, causing a decline in the vitality and increased danger from pests and fungi.

Of coarse there are occasions when wrapping is helpful such as when transporting a tree. There is no data to show that it can prevent heat or cold injuries. For protection against rodents, a fence, placed away from the tree, makes more sense.

Ref.

BIOLOGY OF PLANTS fourth edition chapter 7 (photosynthesis)

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY Vol. 45 May 1958 (photosynthesis in aspen bark) By L.C. Pearson and D.B. Lawrence.

FOREST SCIENCE vol. 12, number 3, 1966 (Winter Breakdown of Photosynthetic Apparatus of Evergreen Species) By Thomas O. Perry and George W. Baldwin.

MODERN ARBORICULTURE, A NEW TREE BIOLOGY, 100 TREE MYTHS
By DR ALEX L. SHIGO

07/09/96

John A. Keslick, Jr.
Tree Biologist